Vanilla Syrup, The cure for the common powdered milk

In some things I have failed as a parent.  My 2 and a half year old will not drink milk without some form of sugar in it.  Be it powdered or otherwise, I am doomed to provide something sweet so he will get his calcium. Lecture me if you want.  I'm just here to share his favorite mix-in (and mine!)--vanilla syrup.

1.  Get yourself some vanilla beans.  I got mine on eBay before my grocery abstinence began.

2.  Add 2 cups sugar for every cup of water to a big pot.  (For this batch I did 8 cups sugar and 4 cups water, which somehow came out to 9 cups of syrup).

3.  For each cup of sugar slice open a vanilla bean and scrape out the tiny seeds.  You know, the little black specks in vanilla bean ice cream.  Add both the scrapings and the pods to the pot.

4.  Heat until all the sugar is melted.

5.  Pour into sterile canning jars, add some beans so they can keep infusing, wipe rims, put on lids and bands.

6.  Water bath for 20 minutes.

There you have it.  Yummy vanilla syrup.  And yes, I did can quarts of the stuff.  In addition to adding it to milk, it's great on pancakes!

What We Ate for Dinner: Beans

Thanks to my friend Chef Tess, I was able to make a meatless meal that was delicious: Polynesian Style Sweet and Sour White Beans.  The only changes I made: I used 3 cans of great northern beans, I used frozen green bell pepper and some red bell pepper left over from a salad, I used 1/4 cup jalapeño jelly (thanks, Jill) and 1/4 c. peach jam and I used 1/2 can pineapple chunks (Kimball had the other half for a snack).  Oh, and I didn't have any fresh cilantro or cabbage for the top.  Shocker.  Instead I found a can of chow mein noodles in my mom's basement.  I helped myself.  Bryce liked the added crunch.

I include one of Chef Tess's pictures because her's are prettier than mine.

Make your own fruit on the bottom yogurt parfaits

As promised the yogurt post:

1.  Heat milk to 185 degrees.  Best part--you can use powdered milk.  Hey, throw in some extra powder, it just adds protein.  Now, you don't need to do it in a jar like this one; it is just supposed to reduce the chance that you'll burn the milk.  If you decide to do it like my picture, use a deeper pan.  This took FOREVER to reach 183 and then it got stuck.  I ended up using a different pan to heat the milk anyway. 

2.  Prepare your jars with jam on the bottom.  Here I have raspberry and peach. There are supposed to be 6, but 2 are broken and I haven't replaced them.  So the odd man out in the middle doesn't get jam.  He is for more starter so I can do this again.

3.  Cool the milk is a water bath to 110.  Don't let it fall below 90 or your yogurt might not set up.  Stir in your active cultures (i.e. the yogurt you bought when you weren't supposed to).

4.  Pour milk into the prepared containers and let incubate for about 10 hours.  The yogurt maker is handy because you don't have to rig anything up.  But it's not necessary.  For some ideas on other methods check out this and/or this.

The jam on the bottom is just plain yummy.  I gave some to Bryce for breakfast today and Kimball ate half of it before Bryce could even taste it.  Toddlers think it always tastes better from Daddy's plate.  They are probably right. 

Now I just need some homemade granola.  You can bet I will be posting that soon.

What We Ate for Dinner: Dehydrated Vegetables

I got this great casserole book from the library a while ago.  It has a recipe that I have been dying to try called "White Bean Casserole with Herbs and Pork Sausage."  I even bought the jar of roasted red peppers it called for.  But I was waiting to make it.  What was I waiting for?  The price of celery to drop.  Lame I know.

So, with our new food storage experiment, I set out to make the recipe with dehydrated veggies.  Thanks to Bryce's grandma, we have carrots and celery.  The onions we already had.

I soaked 1/4 c. celery, 1/2 c. carrots, and 1/4 c. onion in water for most of the day.  Here is the rest of the preparation:

1.  Brown 1 lb. of Italian sausage (I only had about 3/4 lb. and it's my last.), then drain on a paper towel.
2.  In same pan saute drained veggies (but save broth).
3.  Add, 1 jar roasted red bell pepper, diced; 2-3 T. dried parsley; 1/4 t. dried rosemary, crushed; 1/4 t. dried thyme; 1 c. of remaining broth; 1 t. chicken bullion; 1 1/2 t. salt; pepper to taste.
4.  Drain and rinse 2 cans of great northern beans.  Pour into greased casserole dish.  Smash some of the beans.
5.  Stir in sausage and veggie mixture.
6.  Top with 3/4 c. bread crumbs and 1/4 c. Parmesan cheese.  Drizzle with olive oil.
7.  Bake 40 minutes at 400.

I am sure that this would have been a much different dish with fresh veggies, but I loved it.  It has so much flavor.  Kimball even declared, "Yummy beans!"  But Bryce was less impressed.  Oh well, Kimball and I don't have to share the leftovers.

How I made my Solar Oven without Spending a Dime

1.  Enlist your two an a half year old to cut newspaper for you (i.e. occupy the toddler or you will get nothing done).  It's ok if he is still in his pajamas. 

2.  Find two boxes, one smaller that the other by a few inches all the way around.  Fill space between boxes with newspaper.  The smaller box should be large enough to bake two loaves of bread.  However, I read that the shallower the oven the hotter it will get.  I hope my box isn't too deep.  As a side note, I somehow got it in my head that shredded newspaper would be a better insulator than crumpled newspaper.  But it took a long time to shred it, and is probably not necessary.  But Kimball loved helping, so no harm, no foul.  What is in the smaller box you ask?  A blanket.  This is completely unnecessary in making a solar oven.

 3.  Let the toddler play "hiding" in the boxes.

4.  Once you get the boxes good and stuffed you can tuck in the sides of the larger box to make the top pretty.

Your 7 month old will be impressed.

5.  Paint the bottom of the box black.  Or steal your child's paints and mix them all together to make something approaching black.

In my case, dark purple.

6.  Line the sides of the smaller box with tin foil.  I used a brush and some white glue to get the foil to stick.  Worked great.

7.  Admire your work.

8.  Build a lid for the box with a hole the size of the smaller box.  Line the lid with an oven bag.  Instead of making a lid you can use a piece of glass.  I found a website that said the bag worked at least as well as the glass.  Since I had a bag and didn't have glass, I opted for the bag.

Here is the inside of the box lid.  You can see I used a diaper box.  (I tend to have a lot of those around.)

9.  Make a reflecting screen for your oven and line with tin foil.  Then stick her in the sun.

I thought it might be sunny enough today.  You can see in the picture that I started at 61 degrees.  But . . . I could only get the oven to 150 degrees before the cloud cover set in.  You need get it to 250 to bake bread.  I will need to wait for a sunnier day.  But will keep you posted.

What We Ate for Dinner: Cheese Sauce

I talked to Mom this morning on Skype and one of her first questions was, "What did you have for dinner last night?"  If we weren't doing this experiment, I doubt she would have asked that question.  Well, I'll tell you.  We had nachos with cheese sauce made from powdered cheese.  Although I am not totally out of cheese, (I have about a pound of shredded cheddar in the freezer and a pound of mozzarella in the fridge), I did not want to run out of cheese in the first week.

The chips were a bit of a gift from our dinner guests on Sunday.  The black beans were canned, seasoned with cumin and onion salt, smashed a bit and heated.  They were tasty.  The meat was turkey that was cooked, cubed and frozen from a previous meal.  I heated it up with salsa and some of the illicit yogurt.  Here is the recipe for the cheese sauce.  By the way, it makes EXCELLENT mac and cheese.  Kimball approves.

4 1/2 c. dehydrated cheese
2 2/3 c. powdered milk
2 2/3 c. dehydrated butter
2 2/3 c. flour
2 t. onion powder

Mix 1/2 c. mix with 1 c. boiling water.

As a side note.  I took the extra beans and turkey and put them in some flour tortillas, stuck them in the freezer and now I have a few frozen burritos for quick lunches.

Food Storage Swedish Pancake Mix

Growing up in our house, Swedish pancakes were a treat.  Grandma Norman or Dad would make them for breakfast on a Saturday or Sunday.  We would slather them in butter and sprinkle them with powdered sugar.  Yum!  The recipe, however, was a closely guarded family secret -- mostly because there was no recipe.  Throw eggs, flour, sugar, milk, vanilla, salt in a blender.  That was about it.  With a can of powdered eggs at my disposal, I set out to find a formula that would rival Dad's haphazard concoction.  Here it is, ladies and gentlemen (i.e. sibs).

Now I know fresh ingredients are nice, but you can't beat the convenience of a mix.  Especially a home made one.


1/2 c. powdered eggs

1 c. flour
1 T. sugar
1/3 c. powdered milk
1/2 tsp. salt

to that add 2 c. water and 2 tsp. vanilla. Blend in blender or really well by hand.

You can use all or part whole wheat flour and they are just as tasty and slightly more healthy.  You can double, triple, or quadruple the recipe and keep it in the fridge.  Use 2 scant cups of the mix to 2 cups water.

We will be having these quite often, even with fresh eggs around, because my mom asked us to use up her powered eggs.  Happy breakfast!

I totally cheated!

I went to the store today to pick up some non-food items (i.e. diapers, wipes and deodorant).  And I did it.  I succumbed to temptation and I cheated.  But I had a really good reason.  Please don't be disappointed in me.  I realized today that I couldn't make yogurt because I didn't have any starter.  I looked on the internet for some freeze dried starter but it was less expensive to just buy some yogurt at the store.  However, I am making note that I should get some starter to keep with my food storage because if this were a real disaster I might not be able to get some yogurt at the store.  Will you forgive me if I post instructions on how to make yogurt?

Boiling Fresh Eggs

We have had our chickens for 2 weeks.  The first week we netted about 9 eggs.   This last week we netted 18!  Woohoo!  With our plethora of eggs, Bryce requested egg salad sandwiches for lunch today.  What a perfect opportunity to figure out how to boil fresh eggs.  You might be wondering if there is a difference to boiling fresh eggs as opposed to store bought.  Well, I'll tell you from my vast knowledge of boiling fresh eggs (I read a few web pages.)

Apparently fresh eggs are, well, fresh.  This causes the membrane between the egg and the shell to stick to the egg white after it is boiled.  Have you ever had that triumphant egg peeling experience when the shell came of nearly perfectly?  Yeah, old eggs.  In order to combat the freshness problem, I tried every trick I read about.

Please ignore my dirty stove.

1.  Use salt in the boiling water.  (This is actually to keep the egg in the shell if it breaks.)
2.  Prick the egg shell with a pin.  (The theory is that more water can get under the membrane and make them easier to peel.)
3.  Put oil in the water.  (Also supposed to help with the peeling.)
4.  Soak eggs in ice water for about a half hour after boiling.

I thought that the tricks worked pretty well.  I lost a little egg white, but it could have been worse.

Please ignore my dirty counter.

With a little mayo, mustard, salt, pepper and some red bell peppers.  Lunch is ready.  You'll notice that the egg salad is very yellow.  Fresh eggs are just that way.  Large, very yellow yolks.  I'm sure it's a sign they are healthier.

We used the bean bread I made on Saturday.  Delicious!

Self Reliance Experiment: More Recipes

Yesterday was a day of trying new recipes.  I have been looking for a chance to make this bread recipe, which has beans in it.  It turned out delicious!  Bryce said he liked it more than the whole wheat bread I make (which is saying a lot).  I used half white flour and half wheat flour with the bean puree.  I didn't bother grinding any beans for bean flour because my grinder is in storage, but I just may try that some day.

We also had a carrot soup for dinner, which probably would have been better if I had stuck to the recipe.  I made it in the crock pot and about half way through the day I thought it tasted bland so I spiced it up by adding Derek's jalapeño elk salami.  And spice it up it did!  Good thing we had some sour cream to cool it off.  It turned out ok, but I won't be jumping on that recipe again.  Especially since I am almost out of carrots. (I wonder if you could make a whole soup out of dehydrated carrots . . . )

Today we are having a pantry staple: taco soup.  Here is what I threw in the crock pot this morning:

1 onion and 2 cloves garlic cooked until softened
1 lb. elk (You can use beef) browned
1 can black beans, drained
1 can great northern beans, drained
1 can corn, drained
1 can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 can (15 oz) can tomato sauce
1 can diced green chilies
2 cans beef broth (omit these and it will be thicker like a chili)
2 Tb. Emeril's Essence (You can use one pkg of taco seasoning.  I just happened to have some Essence to use up and I have to say, it's quite delicious.)

Heat in the crock pot on low all day.  Top with shredded cheese, sour cream, sliced black olives, Fritos, etc.

I am sure all of this will get more interesting when I start running out of things.